Facebook will be unveiling a new full tool and feature set centered around location at its forthcoming f8 event, says Bits.
The system will focus on two main thrusts, the first allowing users to share their location with their assorted friends on Facebook, and another letting developers interact with Facebook users and their locations via new location-centric APIs.
Of course, this would raise a firestorm of controversy if Facebook had not already battened down the legal hatches. Back in November they changed Terms of Service to include several references to location-based capabilities. That means that like it or not, everyone using Facebook has already given the social networking giant permission to share their location with their friends if they state it.
That said, the terms of service do say that the service, when it comes to be, will be opt-in. That is, Facebook will not share your status without you giving it. However, once you do it is off to the races.
Facebook has declined to comment thus far.
Of course, bringing Facebook into the location game is bad news for every location-heavy startup in the market right now. With Google and Facebook both moving into the location space with Buzz, Latitude, and the forthcoming Facebook release, startups like Foursquare and Gowalla are going to find increasing difficulty in convincing users to adopt their products over the offerings of the giants.
Facebook and Google can offer better location integration into the services that users already use and have deep investments in. Of course, Facebook could commit a serious privacy error (as they are wont to do), but shy of that Facebook will become a player in the location space on April 21, at its f8 conference.
Nice summary Alex. What did you make of this in the Bits article?
“One of the people familiar with the project said that the company was not trying to beat the smaller location-based social networks, such as Loopt, Foursquare and Gowalla.
“Instead, Facebook wants to go head-to-head with Google in the fight for small-business advertising.”
It seems that Foursquare is quite interested in small business advertising as well.
Agreed. I really see no way that they cannot be on a collision course for ad dollars and eyeballs.
A Facebook tool thats allows you to see where your friends are ; that would be really brilliant.
I've read about it somewhere and I have mixed feelings about it. On one hand it's useful to share our location with friends. On the other hand not every friend we have on facebook is the one we want to share our location with. And if it's also viewable for strangers I don't see the point of this app.